Medicine is more merit based?

WayOutWestMom
Wed, 01 Aug 2018 02:29:27 +0000

It depends on what your D means by “merit-based”.

If by merit, she means that her achievements will be judged holistically within context of her life circumstances, then maybe… But with the understanding that attending a “hard” of “highly ranked” or “prestigious private” undergrad or having a “hard” major isn’t going to earn her any brownie points or academic leeway with adcomms. She still needs to have the academic metrics (GPA, sGPA and MCAT) to even get considered. And that once she meets those basic criteria, she needs to demonstrate through her ECs, LORs, personal statement, secondary essays, and interviews that she has all the personal qualities physicians look for in future physicians. (Leadership, altruism, compassion, empathy, resilience, endurance, patience, persistence in the face of failure, cultural competence, a commitment to a life of service, social awareness, strong interpersonal skills, excellent oral & written communication skills, the ability to work well as part of a team, etc. as well intellectual & academic ability.)

If by “merit,” your D mean the person with the highest stats/grades/test scores always gets the med school acceptance, then probably not. Achievement is judged within the context of a person’s background and opportunities. Factors like ethnicity, rural or inner city urban backgrounds, lower SES upbringing, first gen college student , etc. are considered when deciding who to offer admission to, as well as legacy status and big $$$ donor status at specific schools.

BTW, Med schools adcomms really don’t care what undergrad an applicant attends. Prestige of undergrad is ranked as one of the" least important factors" by adcomms in annual surveys so the fact she choose Vandy instead of Chicago makes zero difference to adcomms. She could attend Directional State College or I-Never-Heard-Of-It U and adcomms would not especially care so long as she had the academic metrics and personal qualities to make a good physician.

TBH, I was not trilled when both my daughters decided to give up grad school to pursue medicine. Their lives would have been so much easier if they were engineers or health physicists or healthcare policy wonks than as physicians working 80-100 hours/week and often having to see the worst side of humanity (Drug abusers–check. Abused children–check. Rape victims–check. Mentally ill–check. Demented & abused elderly–check. Abusive a-holes --check, including some of your fellow physicians [Throwing scalpels at residents is not just a myth and teaching via public humiliation–aka PIMPing-- is commonplace]. Non-compliant & ungrateful patients–check. Stupid & self-destructive behavior close up & personal–check.)